In 2025, fire departments serving Elgin responded to 167 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $225K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Building fires lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 67% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Nov dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
1,058 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2022. $3.9M cumulative property loss. 2 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 201 | — | |
| 2022 | 240 | +19.4% | |
| 2023 | 213 | -11.2% | |
| 2024 | 237 | +11.3% | |
| 2025 | 167 | -29.5% |
For the 30 building fires Elgin departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 547 building fires investigators classified across 2021–2025. The room or location where ignition occurred — kitchens, bedrooms, exterior, vehicle areas — tells you where to focus prevention.
| # | Area of origin | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Outside area, other | 140 | 25.6% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 86 | 15.7% | |
| 3 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 64 | 11.7% | |
| 4 | Cooking area, kitchen | 44 | 8.0% | |
| 5 | Wildland, woods | 42 | 7.7% | |
| 6 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 29 | 5.3% | |
| 7 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 25 | 4.6% | |
| 8 | Other | 17 | 3.1% | |
| 9 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 9 | 1.6% | |
| 10 | Exterior balcony, unenclosed porch | 7 | 1.3% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 84 | 15.4% |
NFIRS Heat Source (HEAT_SOURC) — the physical thing that started it. Spark or ember from operating equipment, an open flame, smoking materials, or hot embers from a fireplace are the leading culprits nationwide. Here's the Elgin mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 260 | 47.5% | |
| 2 | Hot ember or ash | 48 | 8.8% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 34 | 6.2% | |
| 4 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 29 | 5.3% | |
| 5 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 19 | 3.5% | |
| 6 | Heat source: other | 18 | 3.3% | |
| 7 | Fireworks | 18 | 3.3% | |
| 8 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 15 | 2.7% | |
| 9 | Heat spread from another fire, other | 14 | 2.6% | |
| 10 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 13 | 2.4% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 79 | 14.4% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Elgin departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 89% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $225,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $120,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $111,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $47,700 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $20,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $20,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $17,500 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $15,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Elgin sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
5 fire-related casualties recorded in NFIRS Module 11 across the 2021–2025 window. Age, gender, and severity are coarse-binned — no individual identification possible.
| Age | Count | |
|---|---|---|
| 0-9 | 0 | |
| 10-19 | 0 | |
| 20-29 | 2 | |
| 30-39 | 0 | |
| 40-49 | 0 | |
| 50-59 | 0 | |
| 60-69 | 1 | |
| 70-79 | 2 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 11,123 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1999 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,484 | 45.8 mi | |
| 2007 | Debris and open burning | 985 | 41.1 mi | |
| 1993 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 950 | 35.0 mi | |
| 1997 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 800 | 38.0 mi | |
| 1993 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 730 | 38.9 mi | |
| 1996 | Natural | 400 | 32.5 mi | |
| 2014 | Natural | 395 | 29.6 mi | |
| 2006 | Debris and open burning | 382 | 29.2 mi | |
| 2012 | Debris and open burning | 378 | 46.3 mi | |
| 1997 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 350 | 25.4 mi | |
| 2018 | Debris and open burning | 325 | 42.6 mi | |
| 1996 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 290 | 20.3 mi |
Top 5 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
Six South Carolina cities with population within ±25% of Elgin. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
A 30-minute weekend can cut your home's exposure substantially. These four checklists are a good starting point.
Numbers reflect incidents reported by participating fire departments to the National Fire Incident Reporting System (NFIRS) Public Data Release for calendar year 2025. NFIRS is voluntary — about 23,000 of roughly 30,000 US fire departments report — so totals are a strong indicator, not a complete census. Per-capita comparisons use 2023 ACS population estimates. Wildland fire data complements NFIRS with NIFC and USFS perimeters. Active-fire counts come from a dated NIFC snapshot, not a live feed.